Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Time to get back to the important stuff.

I started this blog 5 years ago to keep track of my chopper. Things were so slow moving with the build I started adding content from all of my motorcycles. It's been nearly 3 years since I did much work to the chopper, but I've made some progress. Here is what it looks like most recently.

My garage was kinda hazy because I over choked the Wheel Horse when I moved it belching out a bunch of raw gas and exhaust smoke in protest of my error.

The stock length 39mm narrow glide was causing two major problems. It was too short. The bike was so low that if I turned the handlebars to the right the bike would tip over. The lower frame rails were running down hill from the rear axle. I have the shortest jiffy stand I could find and I had an angled lowering wedge installed. The bike still wouldn't lean over far enough.

The second problem was the steering geometry. The bike had 6 7/8" inches of trail. When I did turn the wheel left to right the neck would rise up in the center and flop down side to side. Even pushing the bike around the garage required a noticeable steering effort compared to my other bikes.

Longer fork tubes in the stock triple trees would have cured the to low problem but it would have made the steering geometry even worse.

The answer is raked triple trees.

Raked triple trees are expensive. Really expensive. I knew I needed them years ago but I finally got the cash together and ordered them in January 2015.

With the newly acquired Paughco 5 degree triple trees installed my trail is now at 4 1/2" inches. The steering effort feels wonderful and they look great. There are several well made parts from American suppliers on this bike. Baker, Primo-Rivera, S&S, and now Paughco. The quality is great and I couldn't be happier with the decision I made to go with Paughco for my raked triple trees.

The picture above shows the fork tubes clamped in place simulating 4 inches longer than stock. That seems to be the perfect stretch to bring the bike up to a reasonable ride height. I was able to remove the angle wedge plate from the jiffy stand (I like calling it a jiffy stand Indians have kick stands).

The bike leans over at a normal angle now and I won't have to worry about tipping it over to the right side when I am kick starting it.

I removed one of the sliders so I could measure the tube length. There are several lengths of "stock" 39mm narrow glide forks and I didn't want to order the wrong length.

Mine are the common 24 1/4" inch tubes. I have found several aftermarket tubes that are the desired 28 1/4" inch length but I haven't ordered them yet. I'm trying to decide if hard chrome is worth the extra $150 or If I should order show chrome.